Rei Ayanami woke up, conscious once again of the constant and throbbing pain in her entire body. She struggled to get out of bed, shakily walking over to her medicine tray and taking her daily pill regimen. She took a quick shower and got dressed before heading to school. She had memorized the note Dr. Akagi gave her, yet she still felt strange, like something was holding her back. 'Is this… nervousness?' she thought. She didn't understand. Ikari-kun posed no threat to her, why should she be afraid of speaking to him?
Rei took the train to school, continuing to think about this new feeling she was experiencing as she stared at the floor the whole way to school. She got out of the train car and made her way through the crowd in the station. She eventually got outside, squinting at the bright sun above her. She walked the rest of the way to school and made her way to class. She was there early as usual, and sat down at her desk, gazing out the window. The clouds today were large and puffy cumulus, floating gently along with the wind. Students filtered into class slowly, taking their seats and talking amongst themselves. Rei stayed seated and waited for him to arrive.
The bell rang, and Shinji got in just in time. The teacher still wasn't anywhere to be seen yet. He sat down at his desk, sighing. Misato had been teasing him relentlessly since their conversation yesterday, and he was getting tired of it. He wanted to talk to her, but he just didn't know how to go about it.
Rei got up and walked over to Shinji's desk. He looked up at her.
"Um, h-hi, Ayanami," he said, not expecting this at all.
"Hello, Ikari-kun," she said, "I would like to spe-"
Rei was interrupted by sirens going off, and Shinji jumped in his chair at the noise. The two of them exchanged a look and rushed out of the classroom, heading towards the elevator to Headquarters.
-
"Task-02?" Misato asked, tearing down the highway towards Headquarters. An Angel strode along the surface of the water, two paper-thin legs slowly walking towards the shore. Battleships fired at it uselessly, not so much as making it flinch. The Angel's eyes flashed, and the battleships were launched into the air one by one on plumes of water, being crushed and falling back down in pieces.
Misato looked out her window as two planes soared overhead, dropping two similarly sized packages above the Angel. They were solid metal shells with red and pink legs sticking out of the planes marked "02" and "08" respectively. As they fell towards the earth, the shells split, revealing the two Evas.
Unit-08 threw a rifle towards Unit-02, who proceeded to unload on the Angel. It didn't do much, and both units stuck their legs out to pierce the Angel's A.T. Field. Once through, they slammed into its core, splitting it open and killing the Angel in record time. Unit-02 fell to the earth with a crash, nearly sending Misato flying in her car. Unit-08 made a much more graceful landing.
Rei and Shinji were halfway through changing when they were notified that the threat had been dealt with. Shinji was dumbfounded as to how that was possible. Rei was also curious.
-
"Rei, Shinji, I would like to introduce you to the pilot of Unit-02, Asuka Langley Soryu," Misato said, beaming. They all stood in NERV's command center, having been shown the footage of the battle they missed.
Asuka walked up to Rei, her gold hair waving in the wind. She had bright blue eyes and was the same height as Shinji.
"Charmed?" she said, sticking out her hand. Rei looked at it. Asuka pulled her hand away with a huff.
"You must be the Third Child," she said. "I thought you'd be more impressive," she added dismissively. Shinji sagged a little at the comment.
"How are you, Asuka?" Misato asked cheerily. The two of them started talking about their time together in Germany.
"Oi, nice to meet you," came a voice from behind them. Shinji turned around to see a tall girl with dark brown hair done up in twin pigtails. Her turquoise eyes were framed behind dark pink glasses, and she had a British accent.
She walked up to Rei. "You must be Ayanami," she said.
"Hello, Makinami-san, it is… nice to meet you, too," Rei said.
"Mari is fine, okay?" she replied, flashing a catlike grin. She looked over to Shinji. "It's nice to meet you, Ikari," she said, holding out her hand and smiling. Shinji blushed at the comparatively kind greeting and shook her hand hesitantly.
"It's nice to meet you, too," he said quietly.
"So, where's the food around here? I'm starving," Mari said, stretching after her battle. Shinji offered to show her to the cafeteria. As they towards the door, a tall man walked in. He had dark hair styled in a ponytail and a rugged look. It looked like he hadn't shaved in a while. He saw the two of them and smiled.
"Already making friends, Mari?" he said, winking.
Mari was about to speak when she was interrupted.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Misato said.
"Kaji-san!" Asuka squealed happily.
"Katsuragi," Kaji said, "It's a pleasure to see you here."
Misato was fuming, "I don't have time for this shit right now," she said while rubbing her temples. She quickly brushed past Kaji and left the room.
"Kaji-san, we were about to head to lunch, can you join us?" she said, clinging to his arm.
"I'd love to, but I need to make a delivery," Kaji said, pointing to the briefcase he was holding. Asuka pouted and let go of him, and he left.
They all stood in awkward silence for a moment before Mari chimed up. "C'mon, I can't wait any longer, let's eat!" Shinji led her out of the room and Rei followed them. Asuka trailed behind them.
Rei was unhappy she was unable to speak to Shinji, but she hoped she would be able to during lunch.
-
Kaji entered Commander Ikari's imposing office. He walked up to the lone piece of furniture in the room. Behind the desk sat Gendo, and standing by his side was Fuyutsuki. He set his briefcase down on the desk, silently opening it, the metallic clicks of the buckles echoing through the cavernous room.
"Look at how far he has reconstructed himself," Kaji commented. Inside of the case was a small embryonic organism, gray and curled into a fetal position where its vertebrae were jutting out. A single large eye looked unblinkingly up at the two men admiring it. Imprinted on the substance it was submerged in were the words "SAMPLE A-0 ADAM"
"It's encased in solid bakelite, but there's no doubt. It's alive," Kaji said. "This is the key to the Human Instrumentality Project."
Gendo smirked behind his glasses. "You have done your job well, Ryoji. You are dismissed for now."
Kaji bowed before he left the room, heading towards the cafeteria.
"Is he a man we can trust?" Fuyutsuki questioned.
"He is more valuable to us alive than dead," Gendo stated.
'For now,' Fuyutsuki mused.
-
Misato made her way to the cafeteria and sat down with the pilots. They were chatting idly amongst themselves, and Misato ate her food in silence. She groaned when she saw Kaji making his way over to the table. He sat down opposite her, giving her a smile that Misato met with a grimace.
"What did you deliver, Kaji-san?" Asuka asked, abandoning her conversation with Mari.
"Can't say," he replied, attempting to play footie with Misato under the table.
"So, you're the fabled Third Child," Kaji said, looking over to Shinji.
"Um, y-yeah," he said, looking down.
"I heard you defeated two Angels on your own," he said.
"That was just luck," Shinji replied, rubbing his neck.
"Luck is a part of fate," Kaji said. Asuka scowled.
Kaji's line of questioning was cut short by a firm kick to his shin by Misato, which she followed up on with a sadistic smile. The two of them got into a bickering match and Asuka reluctantly gave into Mari's requests to speak. Rei thought she had found her chance, and repeated Dr. Akagi's note in her head. It was two sentences, but she wanted to make sure she got the wording exactly right.
When she thought she had it, she turned to Shinji to speak, louder than intended.
"Ikari-kun, I enjoyed having intercourse with you last week. Would you like to do it again?"
-
Authors note: This one took a little longer and the chapter is shorter since I was deciding how to structure it. The next chapter should be longer to make up for it!
